11 ms·

IFTTT forced to remove Twitter triggers to comply with new API policies

277 points by hornokplease 14y ago

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
barredo 14y ago
What about buffer and twitterfeed? Will they be able to proceed?
- fold 14y ago
  Posting to twitter via ifttt is not affected, just reading from twitter.
Smudge 14y ago
This feels very counter to Twitter's claimed intent in rolling out the new policies. IFTTT is in no way trying compete as a Twitter client, and, especially in the case where I'm trying to archive my own Tweets, the service only enhances my Twitter experience. Twitter's throwing a lot away in the name of squeezing more value out of its assets.
- dm8 14y ago
  How about you pulling your tweets into Linkedin feed? Didn't twitter revoked Linkedin's official API access? p.s. I don't use IFTTT but this is my guess.
  - Smudge 14y ago
    I see your point. Would I be violating Twitter's policies if automated a process whereby, when I compose a Tweet, the words I write (which are my own) appear simultaneously on something other than Twitter? Is it the round-tripping through their API that has Twitter's undies in a bundle? Because I could just skip that part entirely.
    - jaggederest 14y ago
      You should just skip it regardless. It's fairly obvious that Twitter has become a bad actor and should be removed from the content and communication pipeline. AT&T used to dictate which phones you could connect to their network, too, and that was also a terrible idea.
      - Karunamon 14y ago
        Best way of putting it that I've seen. These recent moves serve to alienate developers (and users by extension) and reek of typical corporate desperation. Show's over folks.
    - makomk 14y ago
      I seem to recall they now have a policy specifically forbidding Twitter client applications from simultaneously posting to other services, so you probably would be violating their new rules.
- debacle 14y ago
  If the ship's going down, you start throwing everything away you can to keep it afloat.
  - tylermenezes 14y ago
    Twitter just moved into a new office, has been acquiring companies (remember, they're what drove Instagram's price up), and you really think they're secretly cash-strapped or something?
    - debacle 14y ago
      No definitely not, but the problem is that the clock is ticking and I think the FB IPO showed them what can happen when the right pieces aren't in place at the time of IPO. No one is going to argue that Twitter has a technological advantage - their service is incredibly simple and could probably be completely replicated by a small team in six months to a year. Moreso than Facebook, they are relying on the network effect but the also monetize less than Facebook, so who really knows if they're ever going to be profitable?
    - adgar 14y ago
      Just because someone's bailing you out (VCs) doesn't mean you aren't going down.
- fudged71 14y ago
  I completely agree with this. And Twitter is now leeching the benefits off of IFTTT without giving anything in return.
dm8 14y ago
Dick Costolo recently spoke about Twitter as a platform on Charlie Rose show - "The future of Twitter is that we'll have a true platform, not just an API that allows developers to create an alternate Twitter experience, but an API that allows third parties to build on top of Twitter in a way that creates accretive value for the user, much how Amazon allowed third-party merchants to build into Amazon." He made it abundantly clear that Twitter doesn't want its API to be used for alternative twitter clients. IFTTT does not necessarily create alternative twitter consumption client but it can be used to accomplish that. On a side note (and it may not be popular with HN community); so far we have seen API used (majority of times) for alternative twitter consumption clients. May be with these API changes, we might see more innovation using Twitter as a "platform"? Rather than people trying to create alternative clients.
- Sodaware 14y ago
  I wonder if that means Twitter want to roll out Facebook style "apps", so it has more control over things. At the moment it's not really a platform if you can't build anything that stores or displays tweets.
  - dm8 14y ago
    Twitter is realtime communication at it finest. They are the breaking news channel. Last year there was earthquake in east bay. First thing I did (even though it was middle of night) was to check my twitter when I sensed the vibrations. And I wasn't disappointed. Within seconds, I knew what was going on and how strong the earthquake was. The amount of data they generate is humongous and can be very valuable. Data scientists can go through that data can do lot of pattern matching generate interesting insights. From how your product is doing in market or even complex predictions. That sort of stuff twitter wants developer community to build not yet another twitter client.
    - ricardobeat 14y ago
      I think you are confused. What happened (and what this post is about) is they are preventing this kind of application to be built. You can't do pattern matching or whatever without access to the data...
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
willidiots 14y ago
I've been using IFTTT to syndicate my Twitter posts to App.net. Guess now I'll have to default to App.net and syndicate to Twitter instead. Say goodbye to my ad revenue, Twitter.
- graue 14y ago
  For those who didn't shell out for App.net, you can also syndicate to Twitter from the completely open rstat.us, which also (for now) allows you to sign in with your Twitter account, so it takes five seconds to set up. https://rstat.us https://rstat.us No personal connection to rstat.us, just think it's a cool remedy for Twitter's new iron-fist policies.
ColinWright 14y ago
See also the discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4550601 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4550601
philip1209 14y ago
I am disappointed that I cannot post tweets to Facebook with this any more. However, using twitterfeed to post them should be fairly straightforward . . .
- nslater 14y ago
  You can do that from within Twitter directly.
state 14y ago
I started to think of Twitter in between SMS and E-mail as I think a lot of people did. To me Twitter is more of a protocol or even a modality than a platform. That's the brilliance of it: it's a speed and length of communication that feels very natural. I have no objections to these rules in terms of Twitter growing as a company. I think there are a lot of applications that can be built aside from clients and it makes sense for them to steer people in that direction. As a user, however, I feel attached to the idea that data and application are separate. I would like to think that I own my Tweets, but most of all I just want to _feel_ like I own my tweets — like I can _do_ whatever I want with them and see them however I want. A short, passive message that I put out in to the world is a great thing and it seems unlikely that a single company can own that idea.
dreamdu5t 14y ago
Twitter's handling of their API closes the door on a future where there can be any expectation of building your service on-top of another. We should stop building apps on-top of walled custom APIs and go back to using HTTP as an API.
nathancahill 14y ago
Are you kidding me?! Why would Twitter do this? Picture Twitter as a tree trunk of data. There are branches and leaves that grow off the trunk, branches like IFTTT and other amazing services. But once you cut off the leaves, then the branches, only the trunk is left. A dead, dead trunk. A couple months ago there wasn't an alternative to Twitter. Now there is. I'm switching to App.net tonight.
jwilliams 14y ago
This is the full email from IFTTT http://pastebin.com/uttmebvT http://pastebin.com/uttmebvT Very diplomatic. I wouldn't have minded a "this sucks for you & us" in there.
joebadmo 14y ago
Add to the list for the need for a decentralized, distributed platform with no one party in control of our information and publishing. I, for one, am really looking forward to what the http://tent.io/ http://tent.io/ guys come out with.
akkartik 14y ago
Just yesterday I saw someone saying how twitter's API policies didn't bother him: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4545823 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4545823. Now they do.
- flexxaeon 14y ago
  I thought of that post too when I saw the news, and couldn't help but wonder "if this triggered that"
Shank 14y ago
I used this functionality to track updates on software from companies/groups that don't do RSS. They do/did Twitter. I also got downtime alerts from Pingdom via Twitter. I'm starting to see this as less and less of a platform I can depend on.
onetwothreefour 14y ago
Congrats to IFTTT for getting themselves a crap load of coverage dishonestly! Yay! http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/20/ifttt-has-actually-been-in-violation-of-twitters-api-for-months-todays-move-unrelated-to-1-1/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/20/ifttt-has-actually-been-in-...
- Karunamon 14y ago
  There's no proof that it's dishonest - it's possible that either legal or twitter themselves tapped them on the shoulder and said they should knock it off. Ignorance before malice.
albertsun 14y ago
IFTTT seems like a perfect case for something that should be an open source project that anyone can install and run on their own servers, not as a centralized service, specifically to prevent things like this. Then anyone could contribute recipes and API clients and there's no central point of failure for them to be all removed in one go.
- ThaddeusQuay2 14y ago
  Yes, and when APIs fail: P2P screenscraping. Regardless of its legality, as some other commenters here have brought up, Twitter can't stop distributed reading and storing without blocking lots of IP addresses.
  - slig 14y ago
    > Twitter can't stop distributed reading and storing without blocking lots of IP addresses. Ha, twitter can't even block @mention spam from fresh accounts using very spammy words.
    - ThaddeusQuay2 14y ago
      Well then, it's time for a 3rd-party Twitter search engine, using a P2P-based scraper, with no regard for API rules or ToS. In the long term, what's more important: Twitter's bottom line, or content not being thrown down the memory hole?
      - slig 14y ago
        It's easier to just jump the ship. Why care so much for a service that doesn't give a shit to us ('us' being app developers, early adopters, etc). They have their target audience (people following celebrities) guaranteed for now. We're just a typical pain in the ass nerds.
        ThaddeusQuay2 14y ago
        Yes, but isn't it worth capturing that content, and in doing so, their users? The search engine I am suggesting could easily transition to being the next Twitter. We grab the content, their users perform searches, and then the users migrate when they see that they can not only search every tweet ever made (since we began indexing) but also add to the database directly (kind of like Google having both a search box and an "add your own URL" box on the main page).
ThaddeusQuay2 14y ago
What about Zapier? Doesn't it provide the same Twitter connectivity as IFTTT did? I don't use either, but, from casual inspection a while back, my impression was that they are similar enough in that regard.
tonetheman 14y ago
Meh. twitter is wrong in this case. And so starts the reputation of being an asshat company. Nothing to see here move along.
mehdim 14y ago
This is why we need API neutrality http://api500.com/ http://api500.com/
mratzloff 14y ago
Their investors obviously got tired of waiting for a return. When that happens at any VC-backed company they start ratcheting up the pressure on the CEO and executive team. And if they don't start generating a return quickly enough, they put their own guy in place. So co-founder Evan Williams moved on from his CEO position in late 2010 and the new leadership purged the old guard. Dick Costolo took over. Either it took 2 years for his profit strategy to come together or the pressure started ratcheting up on him, too. After all, investors have sunk a silly amount of money into Twitter; they expect a return. Either way, I wouldn't want to work at Twitter right now...
samikc 14y ago
People at Twitter must realize that when developers talk about your API's tos rather than the API, you must have broken something. It reminds me Facebook episode of network feed and privacy. At the end of it, Mark understood what the users were talking about and took action to correct it. The problem seems like an issue of making profit by showing promotional tweets, which will not happen in the clients. It, to me, looks like the problem of management which could not come up with better revenue model.
gizzlon 14y ago
Bah, the "foo mentioned you on twitter.." SMS' kept me in the loop.. Now I probably won't even notice :(
munimkazia 14y ago
I don't get it. IFTTT complies with the new API policies. Infact, cool stuff like IFTTT is exactly what twitter should be looking for as platform apps which use their API creatively.
egfx 14y ago
Ok, I created the product http://2FB.me http://2FB.me (ReTweet 2 Facebook) months ago and I read the same policy some weeks ago and didn't read it to mean this at all. 2FB.me makes share links for tweets enhancing & augmenting the experience. It doesn't clone any portion of Twitter. I think the same can be said for IFTTT?
TomMasz 14y ago
It's Twitter's way or the highway. From clients to value-added services, if Twitter doesn't own it, it's dead or soon will be. Fun while it lasted, I guess.
nicholassmith 14y ago
Well, according to Dick Costolo it has nothing to do with the API changes: https://twitter.com/dickc/status/248947914582405120 https://twitter.com/dickc/status/248947914582405120 but I'm struggling to imagine IFTTT killing a really useful feature for no reason.

277 points by hornokplease 14y ago

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

barredo 14y ago

What about buffer and twitterfeed? Will they be able to proceed?

fold 14y ago
Posting to twitter via ifttt is not affected, just reading from twitter.

Smudge 14y ago

This feels very counter to Twitter's claimed intent in rolling out the new policies. IFTTT is in no way trying compete as a Twitter client, and, especially in the case where I'm trying to archive my own Tweets, the service only enhances my Twitter experience. Twitter's throwing a lot away in the name of squeezing more value out of its assets.

dm8 14y ago
How about you pulling your tweets into Linkedin feed? Didn't twitter revoked Linkedin's official API access? p.s. I don't use IFTTT but this is my guess.
- Smudge 14y ago
  I see your point. Would I be violating Twitter's policies if automated a process whereby, when I compose a Tweet, the words I write (which are my own) appear simultaneously on something other than Twitter? Is it the round-tripping through their API that has Twitter's undies in a bundle? Because I could just skip that part entirely.
  - jaggederest 14y ago
    You should just skip it regardless. It's fairly obvious that Twitter has become a bad actor and should be removed from the content and communication pipeline. AT&T used to dictate which phones you could connect to their network, too, and that was also a terrible idea.
    - Karunamon 14y ago
      Best way of putting it that I've seen. These recent moves serve to alienate developers (and users by extension) and reek of typical corporate desperation. Show's over folks.
  - makomk 14y ago
    I seem to recall they now have a policy specifically forbidding Twitter client applications from simultaneously posting to other services, so you probably would be violating their new rules.
debacle 14y ago
If the ship's going down, you start throwing everything away you can to keep it afloat.
- tylermenezes 14y ago
  Twitter just moved into a new office, has been acquiring companies (remember, they're what drove Instagram's price up), and you really think they're secretly cash-strapped or something?
  - debacle 14y ago
    No definitely not, but the problem is that the clock is ticking and I think the FB IPO showed them what can happen when the right pieces aren't in place at the time of IPO. No one is going to argue that Twitter has a technological advantage - their service is incredibly simple and could probably be completely replicated by a small team in six months to a year. Moreso than Facebook, they are relying on the network effect but the also monetize less than Facebook, so who really knows if they're ever going to be profitable?
  - adgar 14y ago
    Just because someone's bailing you out (VCs) doesn't mean you aren't going down.
fudged71 14y ago
I completely agree with this. And Twitter is now leeching the benefits off of IFTTT without giving anything in return.

dm8 14y ago

Dick Costolo recently spoke about Twitter as a platform on Charlie Rose show - "The future of Twitter is that we'll have a true platform, not just an API that allows developers to create an alternate Twitter experience, but an API that allows third parties to build on top of Twitter in a way that creates accretive value for the user, much how Amazon allowed third-party merchants to build into Amazon." He made it abundantly clear that Twitter doesn't want its API to be used for alternative twitter clients. IFTTT does not necessarily create alternative twitter consumption client but it can be used to accomplish that. On a side note (and it may not be popular with HN community); so far we have seen API used (majority of times) for alternative twitter consumption clients. May be with these API changes, we might see more innovation using Twitter as a "platform"? Rather than people trying to create alternative clients.

Sodaware 14y ago
I wonder if that means Twitter want to roll out Facebook style "apps", so it has more control over things. At the moment it's not really a platform if you can't build anything that stores or displays tweets.
- dm8 14y ago
  Twitter is realtime communication at it finest. They are the breaking news channel. Last year there was earthquake in east bay. First thing I did (even though it was middle of night) was to check my twitter when I sensed the vibrations. And I wasn't disappointed. Within seconds, I knew what was going on and how strong the earthquake was. The amount of data they generate is humongous and can be very valuable. Data scientists can go through that data can do lot of pattern matching generate interesting insights. From how your product is doing in market or even complex predictions. That sort of stuff twitter wants developer community to build not yet another twitter client.
  - ricardobeat 14y ago
    I think you are confused. What happened (and what this post is about) is they are preventing this kind of application to be built. You can't do pattern matching or whatever without access to the data...

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

willidiots 14y ago

I've been using IFTTT to syndicate my Twitter posts to App.net. Guess now I'll have to default to App.net and syndicate to Twitter instead. Say goodbye to my ad revenue, Twitter.

graue 14y ago
For those who didn't shell out for App.net, you can also syndicate to Twitter from the completely open rstat.us, which also (for now) allows you to sign in with your Twitter account, so it takes five seconds to set up. https://rstat.us https://rstat.us No personal connection to rstat.us, just think it's a cool remedy for Twitter's new iron-fist policies.

ColinWright 14y ago

See also the discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4550601 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4550601

philip1209 14y ago

I am disappointed that I cannot post tweets to Facebook with this any more. However, using twitterfeed to post them should be fairly straightforward . . .

nslater 14y ago
You can do that from within Twitter directly.

state 14y ago

I started to think of Twitter in between SMS and E-mail as I think a lot of people did. To me Twitter is more of a protocol or even a modality than a platform. That's the brilliance of it: it's a speed and length of communication that feels very natural. I have no objections to these rules in terms of Twitter growing as a company. I think there are a lot of applications that can be built aside from clients and it makes sense for them to steer people in that direction. As a user, however, I feel attached to the idea that data and application are separate. I would like to think that I own my Tweets, but most of all I just want to _feel_ like I own my tweets — like I can _do_ whatever I want with them and see them however I want. A short, passive message that I put out in to the world is a great thing and it seems unlikely that a single company can own that idea.

dreamdu5t 14y ago

Twitter's handling of their API closes the door on a future where there can be any expectation of building your service on-top of another. We should stop building apps on-top of walled custom APIs and go back to using HTTP as an API.

nathancahill 14y ago

Are you kidding me?! Why would Twitter do this? Picture Twitter as a tree trunk of data. There are branches and leaves that grow off the trunk, branches like IFTTT and other amazing services. But once you cut off the leaves, then the branches, only the trunk is left. A dead, dead trunk. A couple months ago there wasn't an alternative to Twitter. Now there is. I'm switching to App.net tonight.

jwilliams 14y ago

This is the full email from IFTTT http://pastebin.com/uttmebvT http://pastebin.com/uttmebvT Very diplomatic. I wouldn't have minded a "this sucks for you & us" in there.

joebadmo 14y ago

Add to the list for the need for a decentralized, distributed platform with no one party in control of our information and publishing. I, for one, am really looking forward to what the http://tent.io/ http://tent.io/ guys come out with.

akkartik 14y ago

Just yesterday I saw someone saying how twitter's API policies didn't bother him: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4545823 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4545823. Now they do.

flexxaeon 14y ago
I thought of that post too when I saw the news, and couldn't help but wonder "if this triggered that"

Shank 14y ago

I used this functionality to track updates on software from companies/groups that don't do RSS. They do/did Twitter. I also got downtime alerts from Pingdom via Twitter. I'm starting to see this as less and less of a platform I can depend on.

onetwothreefour 14y ago

Congrats to IFTTT for getting themselves a crap load of coverage dishonestly! Yay! http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/20/ifttt-has-actually-been-in-violation-of-twitters-api-for-months-todays-move-unrelated-to-1-1/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/20/ifttt-has-actually-been-in-...

Karunamon 14y ago
There's no proof that it's dishonest - it's possible that either legal or twitter themselves tapped them on the shoulder and said they should knock it off. Ignorance before malice.

albertsun 14y ago

IFTTT seems like a perfect case for something that should be an open source project that anyone can install and run on their own servers, not as a centralized service, specifically to prevent things like this. Then anyone could contribute recipes and API clients and there's no central point of failure for them to be all removed in one go.

ThaddeusQuay2 14y ago
Yes, and when APIs fail: P2P screenscraping. Regardless of its legality, as some other commenters here have brought up, Twitter can't stop distributed reading and storing without blocking lots of IP addresses.
- slig 14y ago
  > Twitter can't stop distributed reading and storing without blocking lots of IP addresses. Ha, twitter can't even block @mention spam from fresh accounts using very spammy words.
  - ThaddeusQuay2 14y ago
    Well then, it's time for a 3rd-party Twitter search engine, using a P2P-based scraper, with no regard for API rules or ToS. In the long term, what's more important: Twitter's bottom line, or content not being thrown down the memory hole?
    - slig 14y ago
      It's easier to just jump the ship. Why care so much for a service that doesn't give a shit to us ('us' being app developers, early adopters, etc). They have their target audience (people following celebrities) guaranteed for now. We're just a typical pain in the ass nerds.
      - ThaddeusQuay2 14y ago
        Yes, but isn't it worth capturing that content, and in doing so, their users? The search engine I am suggesting could easily transition to being the next Twitter. We grab the content, their users perform searches, and then the users migrate when they see that they can not only search every tweet ever made (since we began indexing) but also add to the database directly (kind of like Google having both a search box and an "add your own URL" box on the main page).

ThaddeusQuay2 14y ago

What about Zapier? Doesn't it provide the same Twitter connectivity as IFTTT did? I don't use either, but, from casual inspection a while back, my impression was that they are similar enough in that regard.

tonetheman 14y ago

Meh. twitter is wrong in this case. And so starts the reputation of being an asshat company. Nothing to see here move along.

mehdim 14y ago

This is why we need API neutrality http://api500.com/ http://api500.com/

mratzloff 14y ago

Their investors obviously got tired of waiting for a return. When that happens at any VC-backed company they start ratcheting up the pressure on the CEO and executive team. And if they don't start generating a return quickly enough, they put their own guy in place. So co-founder Evan Williams moved on from his CEO position in late 2010 and the new leadership purged the old guard. Dick Costolo took over. Either it took 2 years for his profit strategy to come together or the pressure started ratcheting up on him, too. After all, investors have sunk a silly amount of money into Twitter; they expect a return. Either way, I wouldn't want to work at Twitter right now...

samikc 14y ago

People at Twitter must realize that when developers talk about your API's tos rather than the API, you must have broken something. It reminds me Facebook episode of network feed and privacy. At the end of it, Mark understood what the users were talking about and took action to correct it. The problem seems like an issue of making profit by showing promotional tweets, which will not happen in the clients. It, to me, looks like the problem of management which could not come up with better revenue model.

gizzlon 14y ago

Bah, the "foo mentioned you on twitter.." SMS' kept me in the loop.. Now I probably won't even notice :(

munimkazia 14y ago

I don't get it. IFTTT complies with the new API policies. Infact, cool stuff like IFTTT is exactly what twitter should be looking for as platform apps which use their API creatively.

egfx 14y ago

Ok, I created the product http://2FB.me http://2FB.me (ReTweet 2 Facebook) months ago and I read the same policy some weeks ago and didn't read it to mean this at all. 2FB.me makes share links for tweets enhancing & augmenting the experience. It doesn't clone any portion of Twitter. I think the same can be said for IFTTT?

TomMasz 14y ago

It's Twitter's way or the highway. From clients to value-added services, if Twitter doesn't own it, it's dead or soon will be. Fun while it lasted, I guess.

nicholassmith 14y ago

Well, according to Dick Costolo it has nothing to do with the API changes: https://twitter.com/dickc/status/248947914582405120 https://twitter.com/dickc/status/248947914582405120 but I'm struggling to imagine IFTTT killing a really useful feature for no reason.